Professional Liability Insurance
Protects educators and their families against claims alleging negligent acts, errors, or omissions while providing professional services.
For $6 per month, Protect yourself against frivolous lawsuits, or claims.
Do Teachers Need Professional Liability Insurance?
All educators and public employees need Professional Liability Insurance!
Because the cost of a legal claim or the cost of defending against a frivolous complaint could be so high, it could easily wipe out a lifetime of savings.
Even teachers with the best intentions can slip up, have poor judgment, or just forget something. Such mistakes can be expensive, and could leave you liable for upwards of millions of dollars in damages and legal fees.
Professional liability insurance can help protect you from being held liable following an error in the workplace.
Professional liability insurance (PLI) is an insurance policy that pays for damages done to others because of your failure to adhere to contractual obligations. You may be more familiar with the terms “malpractice insurance”, or “errors and omissions insurance”, both of which are used interchangeably with PLI.
What would you do if one of your students, coworkers, or bosses took you to court claiming you harrassed them? Without professional liability insurance, you would be held responsible, or liable, for covering those costly damages and legal fees – even if you strongly believed you did nothing wrong.
And what would you do if you lost the case or decided to settle? Without PLI, you’d be responsible for paying the judgment or settlement amount. Such events could force you into bankruptcy, or worse, your teaching career – even if the claim arose from a simple mistake.
Who and What does PLI cover?
Professional liability insurance covers damages to employees, or teachers, as a result of:
- Negligence,
- Breaches of contract,
- Malpractice,
- Errors,
- Incomplete or inaccurate work, and
- Misrepresentation.
In the event you are sued for damages, PLI would pay for your legal defense and any damages awarded to the opposing party.
Let’s say you are a Kindergarten public school teacher with a busy classroom of 6 year old children. If one of your students accidentally hurts themselves, maybe broke their arm, as the teacher you’d be held responsible for the legal consequences unless you’re protected by professional liability insurance for teachers.
Similarly, assume you’re a high school teacher with know-it-all teenagers in your classroom. What if one of your students claimed you looked at them inappropriately, and the student’s parents filed a lawsuit against you individually?
Professional liability insurance would cover your legal fees, and protect you against any damages you owed. This way, you can keep your professional reputation shiny, without risking your career. (And, hopefully, you learned from your mistake – we all make ‘em!)
PLI covers errors, you’re protected from non-physical claims. In contrast, general liability insurance covers claims of bodily injury and property damage.
However, professional liability insurance would cover bodily injuries or property damage if it’s a result of your profession.
When do teachers need professional liability insurance?
Professional liability insurance protects you from claims asserting negligence on your part, whether or not those claims have any merit.
You should strongly consider purchasing professional liability insurance if you are a teacher. And remember, if you did nothing wrong, you might still need to defend yourself against claims. You don’t need to be a millionaire to get sued like one!
Some states may even require teachers to have PLI coverage.
With professional liability insurance, teachers can keep educating the youth and rest easy knowing you’re protected if something goes awry in your classroom.
